Thousands of devotees throng Bawe Wali Mata temple on first Navratra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, October 13

Thousands of devotees paid obeisance at the famous Bawe Wali Mata temple on the first Navratra today.

Security personnel deployed by the district administration and local volunteers had a tough time managing the heavy rush. Long queues of the devotees could be witnessed since early morning right from the main entrance till the temple. Such was the enthusiasm among the devotees that they started reaching the temple along with their family members early in the morning around 4 am.

The whole temple complex has been given a decorated look with flowers and lights for nine-day-long festivities dedicated to incarnations of Goddess Durga. In order to avoid chaos-like situation, separate queues of men and women devotees were prepared, but that also were not enough as the devotees continued to throng the holy shrine in large numbers to seek blessings of the Goddess.

Special prayers were held in the temple dedicated to Goddess Durga. A number of social and religious organisations had put up various food stalls en route the temple for the devotees. Especially children were seen relishing the recipes. Members of Civil Defence have been roped in to provide necessary help to the devotees and to maintain order during the festivities. A camp of the J&K State Disaster Relief Force (SDRF) has also been set up on the temple premises to avert any mishap during the nine-day-long holy festivity.

A number of safai karamcharis have also been deployed in and around the temple premises to maintain cleanliness. However, the parking was jam-packed and long queues of parked vehicles of devotees visiting the temple were seen on either sides of the road leading to the temple.

“Even though I came along with my family early in the morning around 6 am, but still it is taking too much time to offer prayers due to heavy rush of devotees,” said Raghu, a devotee.